Received 17 May 2013; in revised form 29
March 2014; published online 28 August 2014

Abstract.

This paper examines biopolitical control practices at
the Greece–Turkey borders and addresses current debates in the study of borders
and biopolitics. The Greek and Frontex authorities have established diverse
surveillance mechanisms to control the borderzone space and to monitor,
intercept, apprehend, and push back migrants or to block their passage. The
location of contemporary borders has been much debated in the literature. This
paper provides a nuanced understanding of borders by demonstrating that while
borders are diffusing beyond and inside state territories, their practices and
effects are concentrated at the edges of state territories—ie, borderzones.
Borderzones are biopolitical spaces in which surveillance is most intense and
migrants suffer the direct threat of injury and death. Applying biopolitics in
the context of borderzones also prompts us to revisit the concept. While
Foucault posits that biopolitics is the product of the historical transition
away from sovereign powers controlling territory and imposing practices of
death towards governmental powers managing population mainly through pastoral,
productive, and deterritorialized techniques, the case of the Greece–Turkey
borderzones demonstrates that biopolitics operates through sovereign
territorial controls and surveillance, practices of death and exclusion, and
suspension of rights. This study also highlights the fact that, despite the
biopolitical realities, migrants continue to cross the borders.

On Jan. 19, a boat carrying refugees capsized en route from Turkey to Greece and 12 people, women and children, drowned in plain view of the Greek coast guard. At least seven migrants died in a similar accident in the Aegean Sea in March, six in April and at least 22 in May.

Rana Fida, 42, steps onto the balcony of her refugee apartment on the Greek island of Lesbos. Looking out at the sea she crossed to get there, she says: "It's a miracle to be here."

Fida and her 12-year-old twins, Aya and Abdullah, tried three times to flee to Europe from Syria, using the land route through Turkey. Twice they were detained by Bulgarian security forces and sent back to Turkey and the third time Turkish police detained the family. On the fourth attempt, Fida risked her life and that of her children by boarding a trafficker's inflatable boat.

This is a direct consequence of Frontex's efforts to secure the borders. Until recently, refugees in the southeastern Mediterranean region were able to reach Europe by land. But then, in response to pressure from the EU, Greece sealed off its border with Turkey. In 2012, the Greek government applied the Melilla model and built a 10.5-kilometer border fence at the Evros River, deployed 1,800 additional police officers and opened new internment camps for migrants. In 2011 and 2012, Frontex invested about 37 million in Operation Poseidon to secure the Greek-Turkish border. A few kilometers to the north, Bulgaria, with EU support, has just completed a 30-kilometer metal fence along a section of the border.

The technical upgrades are all part of "effective border management," say officials at Frontex.

More and more refugees are now taking the sea route. At least 218 people died in the Aegean between August 2012 and July 2014. According to human rights organizations, the Greek coast guard forced some of them back into the open sea, where they drowned.

PHOTO GALLERY

Rana Fida, who doesn't want to use her real name, is rubbing prayer beads. She is wearing a long black skirt and a headscarf.